


Be Complete One Day

by BobRussellFan



Series: Where's Beverly? [1]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Picard
Genre: this is a sad one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:07:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23057461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BobRussellFan/pseuds/BobRussellFan
Summary: Near the end of his tenure as Grand Nagus, Rom has one last meeting with the Federation Ambassador.
Series: Where's Beverly? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1657300
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15





	Be Complete One Day

2389  
The Tower of Commerce  
The private quarters of the Grand Nagus 

Rom shrugged. “There’s...not really anything I can do at this point. Leeta and I will move back into Moo-into my house,” he clarified softly. “Quark was smart to franchise; nobody’s going to touch a chain of profitable Ferengi embassies all over the Federation and the old Neutral Zone. I’m not in any danger - Pel’s the one they want to lock up, and even then, I’m pretty sure that’s just theater.” He shrugged again and looked away from the Federation ambassador, the holoimage behind him shifting to a scene of his wife’s birthplace on Bajor. “It’s too late to do anything else.” 

“It’s not too late, Rom.” Ambassador Ezri Dax looked across the desk at her old friend. In public she gave her friend the title he deserved as fifteen years as Grand Nagus; in private...well, the old barriers had a way of coming down. “You can still contest the results of the election; you are still one of the most beloved men in Fereginar! I don’t understand why you’re not...you’re not doing more.” 

There was a time when Rom would have stuttered, hemmed and hawed; but power had a way of changing people. So did time, and tragedy. Behind him, the rotating holo images of his personal album shifted from an image of Rom greeting the Dominion Ambassador to that of Lieutenant Nog in the engine room of the USS Defiant. “Because there’s no evidence of fraud, at least, not under Ferengi law. Krax won a plurality of votes in the runoff, and that’s that.” He threw up his hands. 

“But Krax is…” Well there were worse Ferengi, Ezri supposed, but she couldn’t think of any who were in a position to be elected Grand Nagus. “He ran _against_ most of your reforms of the last fifteen years! He’ll pack the courts, he’ll pull out of the treaty with the Federation, hell, he’ll disenfranchise women if he can get away with it - he’s going to do damage that it’ll take years to fix!” The hell of it was, plenty of Ferengi women had voted for Krax too - tradition was a powerful message even in a planet where tradition was terrible. At least the Ferengi in Starfleet or already living in the Federation were safe, thought Ezri… 

“That’s probably true.” Rom sounded tired. “I think the institutions we’ve built will hold him back; but things are going to get worse before they get better.” He looked away, briefly at the moment of breaking down, and then took a breath and moved on. “But enough about me, let’s talk about you. Where do you think the Federation will assign you next?” Behind him the image shifted, showing a scene from _Enter-prized_ with the Grand Nagus First Lady, and Lieutenant Commander Nog acting out the main characters. 

Ezri nodded; not surprised that Rom had understood the dynamics of the situation. The same qualities that had made her such a good ambassador to the old Fereginar wouldn’t serve her nearly so well in the new regime. President Okeg was talking about pulling Ralph Offenhouse out of retirement - which Ezri had to admit was probably a good choice, even if Offenhouse was still addicted to those toxic Terran cigars. “I’m...actually due for some leave. After that, I may go back to Earth.” 

Rom winked. “Well, I bet Doctor Bashir will be happy to see you!” He laughed, and he really had gotten very good in the last fifteen years; Ezri could almost believe it, and talk about her sometime-husband was usually enough to distract her anyway. “You’ll have to talk to Leeta, see if she has any messages for him!” He put his hands together, smiling toothily, and suddenly Ezri couldn’t stand it. 

Her voice sharper than she liked to use at work, she said, “Rom! Please, this isn’t like just...quitting working at the bar! Your whole civilization is at stake!” 

Rom frowned, putting his hands back on his lap, and gave her a serious look. “_My_ civilization, Ezri. Not yours.” He looked away, one hand moving to where his staff lay against the edge of his chair. “If the only reason Ferengi democracy has thrived is because I was Nagus, well...then it wasn’t really democracy at all. The people have spoken, even if we didn’t like what we heard. Either Krax is better than we think he is, or he isn’t. I can’t solve everything sitting in the Tower of Commerce.”

Ezri normally knew better than to continue; after all, depending on how you looked at it, Dax had been a diplomat longer than human lifetimes. But she was tired from a long election night, from a room full of weeping Ferengi women working at the embassy who had just seen their candidate defeated by someone who seemed to embody the worst impulses of their society, from reading Pel’s concession speech and thinking how far and how long that remarkable woman had come, and just then the image behind Rom had shifted to one of Commander Nog, the first Ferengi in Starfleet, frozen in time sitting on the bridge of the USS Perlasca, Mars and the shipyard of Utopia Planitia visible on the viewscreen. 

“Rom, I know how hard you’ve worked over the last fifteen years, and I know everything your family has given to the Alliance - and the Federation. Krax wants to throw all that away! Don’t you think-” 

“_You did that already_.” Another Ferengi would have shouted it; Rom growled it between gritted teeth. “I gave the Federation some of the best years of my life. _I gave them my son._” His hand tightened on his staff. “During the campaign, when Krax said that Nog...was proof that I was weak and foolish, that I was teaching...philanthropy to a generation of Ferengi. I wanted to _kill him_.” He looked away. “I wanted to have liquidators drag him out of his house and have him _thrown off the top of this building!_" He hit the desk with the heel of his hand, and suddenly seemed terribly old. 

“But that’s not what Nog would have wanted,” finished Ezri, her cheeks flushed and her voice thick in her throat. 

“My son believed in...equality. And in a Ferenginar that could govern itself. That didn’t need a great man with big lobes, or a big heart, to lead it into the future.” He sighed softly. “We could use a man like him now.” 

“Yes. Yes, I think so too.” Ezri rose to her feet and gave a diplomat’s bow to the Grand Nagus. “Shall I stop by again before my departure, Grand Nagus?” 

“You’re always welcome here,” said Rom softly, a half-smile on his face. “At least until Krax puts the naked females back on the walls…” He sighed softly, looking around the modestly decorated office, as the image behind his head shifted to that of Deep Space Nine, a multi-armed halo around his bald head. “You know, I tried to get Leeta to move back to Bajor.” 

“Oh?” Ezri knew what Leeta would have said to that, but wanted to hear what Rom had to stay about it. 

Rom rose to his feet and walked to the window, looking out at the skyline below. “She said this is our home. We’re not going to give up on it just yet.” He put his hand against the transparent aluminum, scowling as he heard Krax’s voice on a projector far down the side of the building; his victory celebration still playing. “Whatever it takes.”

**Author's Note:**

> RIP Aron Eisenberg. 
> 
> re:Perlasca  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Perlasca
> 
> Leave your comments below!


End file.
